Witness at the Precipice:

Photography is meaningful to me because it allows me to be a witness: a person who is present and willing to observe consciously, without judgment.  Working from this point of view ignites a fundamental process of change. While our society structures life as a fragmented experience, making pictures addresses a basic need of mine to work toward a state of unity. Whether in the genre of self-portraiture or while working with a subject, photography has shown me a place of inner vitality infused with the possibility of discovery. Though I often use props such as wigs or gloves, I am not interested in creating fantasies, per se, except where these enactments help me to behold a larger truth. When an authentic experience of witnessing occurs, there is great purpose in the act of seeing.  For me, it has been a mostly quiet journey, punctuated by the sound of my camera’s shutter; illuminated by those rare moments of bright realization, where pathways long closed were at once opened before me and new. 

 ~ Chehalis Hegner

© Derek Matias 2009

Contact Info

info@chehalishegner.com

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Biography

Chehalis Hegner has had solo and group exhibitions, in a variety of venues including: ICA, Portland Maine: (Photographs for Arthur Ganson: Machines Contemplating Time), The Art Institute of New England (Handmade Cinema), The Photographic Resource Center in Boston (Celebrating New Technologies )the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake, Illinois (Microcosms), Edwards Art Gallery at the Holderness School; Plymouth, NH (Microcosms), The Art Institute of Boston, Epi Center in Boston, The Galletley Gallery (Silence Unfolding series), New Hampton, NH, Maryland Art Place (Objects of Adoration), Baltimore, MD, and Gallery Imperato (Identified), Baltimore, MD, a solo exhibition (On the Precipice) at St. Gauden’s National Historic Site, NH, and in Varigotti, Italy.

In 2006, Chehalis was nominated by Arno Minkkinen for the PRC/POV 30th anniversary Exhibition ~ where photographic luminaries were asked to nominate emerging photographers they believed would make the greatest contributions to photography over the next 30 years. 

Ms. Hegner held an Artist in Residence post at Plymouth State University from 2000-2001, and then accepted a position as photography instructor within their art department.  Currently she is in the creative stages of collaboratively teaching a new workshop with Jonathan Singer:  Unifying the Creative and the Technical, and is an adjunct photography teacher within the art department at Umass, Lowell.

Chehalis Hegner received her MFA in Visual Arts at the Art Institute of Boston in June, 2005.  Her mentors include photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen, George Fifield (Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park and founder of the Boston Cyber Arts Festival), and Jonathan Singer of Singer Editions, Boston.  Hegner received her B.A. at Berklee College of Music and is also a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy at Interlochen, Michigan. In 2006 she completed the Boston Lawyers for the Arts seven month program on Professional Development for Artists.

Recent publications include reviews in the Boston Globe, Art New England, and her images have been featured in Shots Magazine.

Chehalis is a diverse artist with ongoing projects that include:

1. On Photography and Healing.


2. "The Anatomy of a Kiss,” An experimental video archive piece, large in scope, that explores that celebrated and evocative topic.


3. “Rarefied Dewdrops.” Extraordinary moments made present through simple, mundane, or pedestrian means.


4. Portraits of people.


5. Self-portrait work in a variety of settings, expressing the struggle toward inner unity.


6. “Catholic Mysteries.”  This series of photographs aims to express the inner truths that have been passed on through the generations by means of the external rituals and stories of the Catholic Church.